Claudius Smith, 32, (left) was charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Ricardo Sanes in MetroWest on Jan. 16, police said.

Claudius Smith, 32, (left) was charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old Ricardo Sanes in MetroWest on Jan. 16, police said. (Orange County Jail, Orlando Police)

Jeff Weiner and Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel

The gunman accused of chasing and killing a 21-year-old man at a west Orlando apartment complex on Thursday told police he was pursuing a suspected burglar and acted in self-defense after he was attacked.

A police account of the shooter's self-defense claim obtained by the Orlando Sentinel suggests this could be the latest local homicide in which the state's controversial "stand your ground" law becomes a factor.

Police were called to the shooting just before noon Thursday at the Fountains at MetroWest apartments. They arrived to find 21-year-old Ricardo Sanes dead in the grass, surrounded by six .45-caliber shell casings.

The alleged shooter, 32-year-old Claudius Smith, was caught later Thursday. Smith told detectives that he had shot someone "in self defense," according to a police report.

Smith said he was inside his house on Carter Street when his girlfriend, looking at a outdoor surveillance monitor, spotted someone in dark clothing "walking around his yard," who "was last seen climbing over the fence into" the apartment complex.

Smith told police he had been having "a recent problem with burglaries at his house ... and he was certain the unknown male was responsible," a police account states, so he "began chasing the unknown male."

According to police, Smith admitted jumping the fence into the apartment complex, armed with a .45-caliber handgun, where he said he saw Sanes "looking into windows of apartments as he walked past them."

Smith admitted pulling his gun and confronting Sanes, and when Sanes tried to walk away, Smith said he grabbed Sanes' hooded sweatshirt and tried to force Sanes back to his house "so the police could be called."

Smith told police Sanes "punched him in the mouth and grabbed for his gun."

"[Smith's] immediate response was to pull the trigger and fire shots at [Sanes]," a report states. Smith said he feared Sanes was armed "because his pants were falling down" and his hands were in his hoodie pockets.

A preliminary examination of Sanes' body revealed gunshots to his upper back and the back of his neck. Authorities found a .40-caliber handgun "concealed in the crotch area of [Sanes'] pants," an affidavit states.

When police told Smith that Sanes appeared to only have wounds to his back, Smith reportedly claimed those must have been exit wounds. He admitted he didn't know Sanes had a gun before police told him.

Smith's sister told police that, when she saw her brother after the shooting, he was crying and vomiting, and told her he had shot and possibly killed "somebody trying to break into his house," the report states.

The case may have some parallels to Central Florida's most notorious recent homicide: the fatal Sanford shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

Zimmerman, who said Trayvon attacked and beat him before the fatal shot, was acquitted on a self-defense argument at trial.

Similarities range from attire — both Trayvon and Sanes wore hoodies — to the basis the shooters claimed for taking action: concern over recent burglaries. Both gunmen said they were attacked before firing.

However, legal analysts say there are key differences between the two cases: Trayvon was shot in his chest, while arrest paperwork states Sanes was wounded from behind.

And Smith, unlike Zimmerman, reportedly admitted to physically restraining the person he suspected at gunpoint.

"If [Smith] didn't have probable cause to detain this guy, or make a citizens arrest, then everything he did was illegal and he has no 'stand your ground' defense," said Orlando defense lawyer Richard Hornsby.

Bill Sheaffer, legal commentator for WFTV-Channel 9, said the cases are "fairly similar," but vary significantly enough that Smith likely would "have an uphill battle convicting a jury that it was self-defense."

However, he said he wouldn't rule out a "stand your ground" claim: "It's available, it's worked, and lawyers and defendants are always testing the elasticity of 'stand your ground' and of self-defense."

Increasingly, Hornsby said, defendants "seem to know what to say to at least give them a benefit of a doubt when it comes to invoking the 'stand your ground' law."

Smith told his girlfriend to lock the doors and windows as he left, she said. She was "fairly certain" he was armed, because he has a concealed-carry permit and "is often armed while at the house," the affidavit states.

However, in Florida, pursuing someone, even while armed, doesn't always preclude a self-defense argument.

In an often-cited example, Miami resident Greyston Garcia was declared immune from prosecution for chasing down and stabbing a man who had stolen his car radio, according to multiple South Florida media reports.

A judge ruled that slain man, Pedro Roteta, had presented a lethal threat to Garcia by swinging a bag of radios at his head.

The Zimmerman case renewed debate about the "stand your ground" law, which grants immunity for law-abiding citizens who use deadly force in response to a reasonable fear of great bodily harm or death.

A bill aimed at tweaking the law, sponsored by Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, and Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, is under consideration by the Florida Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.

Among other changes, that proposed law would limit the ability of "aggressors" to win immunity.

Further complicating Smith's case, according to the affidavit: He "could not provide a reasonable explanation" for fleeing the scene after the shooting, or for discarding his handgun.

He also claimed to have surveillance video he said "would prove this was the second time [Sanes] had tried to break into his house" in 10 days. But when police arrived, the video recorder was gone.

"The defendant claimed not to know who removed the digital recorder or why it was removed," the affidavit states.

Smith faces a charge of second-degree murder with a firearm. He was being held without bail Friday at the Orange County Jail.